You’ve noticed that your website (like many global websites) struggles with performance issues when accessed from China – high latency, incomplete page loads, or outright timeouts.

For international businesses targeting Chinese users, these problems can disrupt critical functions and impact brand trust.

One solution on your radar is probably hosting your website onshore in China (that’s why you’re reading this).

This guide will walk you through your options for improving web performance in China, including considerations for onshore versus offshore hosting. Then, we’ll dive into four reliable hosting providers for onshore hosting in China.

Onshore vs. offshore hosting for China web visitors

The decision to host onshore or offshore depends on your business’s:

Technical requirements,

Features,

Target audience,

And available resources.

You may be assuming that hosting a website in China is the only way to ensure fast, reliable performance for users in the country. However, this isn’t always necessary and doesn’t paint the full picture.

Do you need to host a website onshore in China for it to load properly?

The short answer is no. From a technical standpoint, you do not need to necessarily host your site in China for it to achieve strong web performance – there are available options for offshore websites that we’ll cover at the end of this guide.

China’s unique internet environment introduces latency and packet loss for cross-border traffic, especially if your site relies on blocked or slow-performant third-party services (e.g., Google APIs, YouTube embeds). However, onshore hosting isn’t a silver bullet and poorly configured sites can still lag even on mainland servers.

Note: Onshore hosting requires an ICP license – either a commercial ICP Bei’an or a simpler filing for non-commercial sites. Hosting providers can sometimes assist, but you’ll need a Chinese entity or partner to fulfil pre-requisites. There are also other pre-requisites such as the PSB filing and more.

Whether you’re hosting onshore in China or offshore, your website’s ability to load fast and fully is dependent on two main factors:

Infrastructure: Server location and content delivery network (CDN) integration.

Code: Third-party resources used on websites that may be blocked or slow-performant in China, leading to poor performance. Even for websites built and hosted onshore, unoptimized code can impact performance.

Let’s break down the infrastructure piece further.

Hosting Provider vs CDN

What a hosting provider does

A hosting provider (like Alibaba Cloud or Tencent Cloud) runs your origin server, storing your website’s files, databases, and backend infrastructure. In China, onshore providers operate data centers in regions like Beijing or Hangzhou, where they can use local ISPs (internet service providers) like China Telecom for fast connectivity. Sometimes your content management platforms (CMS) include hosting by default, in which case, the hosting sits with them. Examples of this include Webflow, Shopify, and WordPress.

What a CDN does

A content delivery network (like Akamai China or Amazon Cloudfront China) is a network of distributed servers that caches your website’s static content (e.g., images, CSS, JavaScript) across multiple locations worldwide or within a region like China. When a user visits your site, the CDN delivers this cached content from the server closest to them, reducing load times and easing the strain on your hosting provider’s origin server.

How a CDN works

Read more: What are the Top CDN Providers in China for Boosting Website Performance?

Do you need both a hosting provider and a CDN in China?

The short answer is it depends on the complexity of your site and the location(s) of your target audience – a CDN may not be necessary for a simple site targeting an audience near the origin server location. Also, many hosting providers include CDNs as part of their offering. Here’s more of a breakdown:

Speed and user experience:

Even with an onshore hosting provider in China, users in different regions (e.g., Xinjiang vs. Shanghai) might experience varying load times due to distance from the server. A CDN with points of presence (PoPs) across China can minimize this by delivering content from a nearby edge server.

Traffic spikes:

If your site sees bursts of traffic, a CDN can handle the load by distributing it across its network, preventing your origin server from getting overwhelmed. Without a CDN, you’d rely solely on your hosting provider’s capacity, which might require scaling up (and paying more) during peak times or risk downtime.

Cost vs. necessity:

If your site is lightweight (e.g., static HTML, minimal DB queries) and your audience is concentrated near your hosting provider’s data center, you might not need a CDN right away. But if you’re serving multimedia (like a 4K video) or expect users from diverse locations in China, a CDN becomes more valuable.

Read more: How to Choose the Best CDN for China

Best hosting providers for onshore website hosting in China

For onshore hosting in China, you need providers that deliver low-latency infrastructure and scalability, as well as factoring in your development stack and scope of your site.

Fortunately, the biggest hosting providers in China have similar infrastructure to global cloud providers like AWS, allowing you to set up a virtual server which can run most modern web server stacks.

Below are the top 4 options, based on popularity, number of data centers in China, and ease of use (i.e., similarities to global equivalents).

Note: Hosting your site onshore in China isn’t a decision to take lightly. While it can deliver infrastructure benefits, it also introduces operational complexities like managing a separate hosting environment and maintaining two versions of your website (China vs global). That said, should you require onshore hosting for regulatory, technical, or strategic reasons, here are some of the top providers to consider.

1. Alibaba Cloud

Overview: Alibaba Cloud is China’s leading cloud provider and a go-to- for scalability and local support.

Best for: Businesses needing flexible hosting plans that can adapt to fluctuating traffic demands.

Number of data centers in China: 14 in mainland China regions (including Beijing, Qingdao, Shenzhen).

Elastic computing: Alibaba Cloud’s Elastic Compute Service (ECS) allows users to deploy virtual servers that can scale up or out based on workload.

Ecosystem integration: Alibaba Cloud includes platforms like Alipay and Taobao, making it easier to leverage local APIs for China-specific functionality.

Cross-border products: Alibaba Cloud offers a Hong Kong Web Hosting Package that enables businesses to launch their site in Hong Kong and expand into Mainland China after obtaining an ICP License.

CDNs: Alibaba Cloud CDN global network consists of over 3,200 points of presence (PoPs), with over 2,300 distributed across the Chinese mainland.

2. Tencent Cloud

Overview: Tencent Cloud leverages its parent company’s massive ecosystem (e.g., WeChat) to deliver reliable, cost-effective hosting with strong regional performance.

Best for: Smaller businesses or those prioritizing affordability without compromising on core functionality.

Number of data centers in China: more than 40, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing.

Elastic computing: Cloud Virtual Machine (CVM) instances offer scalable compute resources, adaptable to your site’s evolving demands.

Ecosystem integration: Seamless hooks into WeChat and other Tencent services, ideal for outreach or app integration in China.

Cross-border products: Tencent Cloud has a Cross-MLC-border acceleration function, which leverages the Hong Kong access point.

CDNs: Tencent Cloud CDN has over 1,100 PoPs in mainland China.

3. AWS China (via Sinnet/NWCD)

Overview: AWS China, operated through local partners, brings enterprise-grade reliability to the region, appealing to globally-minded institutions.

Best for: Global businesses already using AWS elsewhere, seeking consistency across deployments.

Number of data centers in China: data centers in 2 regions (Beijing and Ningxia).

Elastic computing: EC2 instances provide flexible VMs, paired with EBS storage for dynamic scaling.

Ecosystem integration: Ties into AWS’s broader toolkit (e.g., IAM, VPC), though localized via partners.

Cross-border products: Strong global presence but no specific product for cross-border acceleration.

CDNs: CloudFront China has Edge locations in Beijing, Shanghai, Zhongwei and Shenzhen.

4. Huawei Cloud

Overview: Huawei Cloud combines innovative tech with competitive pricing, steadily gaining traction in China’s hosting market.

Best for: Businesses exploring advanced features like AI-driven analytics alongside hosting.

Number of data centers in China: data centers in 8 regions (e.g., Guangzhou, Shanghai).

Elastic computing: ECS delivers scalable virtual servers, matching workload spikes efficiently.

Ecosystem integration: Huawei’s telecom roots enable unique tools, like AI/ML integrations for user insights.

Cross-border products: Strong global presence but no specific product for cross-border acceleration.

CDNs: Huawei’s CDN offers over 2,000 PoPs in China’s mainland.

China web performance optimization: onshore in China or offshore

As mentioned above, hosting onshore is not a silver bullet to stellar web performance in China. Dependencies on certain third-party resources could still be the reason your site performs poorly for users in China, even if you’re using China-friendly infrastructure.

That’s where Chinafy comes in.

Offshore with Chinafy - If you’re looking to optimize your global site without rebuilding onshore, you can use Chinafy as a bolt-on solution to your existing global site to make it more compatible with China’s internet ecosystem.

Onshore with Chinafy - If you’re not happy with how your onshore site performs, Chinafy can help you handle third-party resources to further improve performance.

Whether you’re hosting onshore or offshore, Chinafy makes your website load fast and fully in China:

Generates a version of your website for China visitors without affecting your current site.

Combines both in-person and platform-level features to detect and replace blocked or slow resources that cause loading delays.

Speeds up content delivery with China-friendly CDNs.

Typically takes only a couple of weeks to implement with minimal IT involvement from your team.

Chinafy is also compatible with most, if not all CMS platforms that you are currently using as our technology sits as a layer above your website.

For developers building websites targeting China, the right hosting setup comes down to aligning performance, cost, and compliance with your project’s needs. Alibaba Cloud offers scalability for changing loads, Tencent Cloud keeps costs low for simpler sites, AWS China ensures consistency across global deployments, and Huawei Cloud adds AI-driven extras for data insights. Pairing with a CDN extends reach across regions, but success also depends on third-party dependencies like Google APIs that also impact performance.

Ready to make your website fast and accessible in China without the guesswork? Optimize it with Chinafy (onshore and offshore options available).